not be able to perceive the notated beat type or meter type or both.

The first of Chopin’s

Preludes, Op. 28, is heard in compound time, but it is notated in 28, with most of the
beats being divided into sixteenth-note triplets. Contradictions between the way rhythm
is heard and the way it is written are especially common in post-tonal music. An example
similar to the Chopin prelude, but more complex, is the second movement of Webern’s
Variations for Piano, Op. 27. Although written in a very fast simple duple, it seems to
most listeners to be in a slower compound meter, with occasional odd-length beats
Características concernentes ao ritmo e métrica na
thrown in. The beginning of the piece is seen in Example 6-1, with the perceived rhythm
notated below. (It couldmúsica
also be hearddoin 38.)Sec. XX
Notice the extra eighth-note rest in the
second measure.
1. Ritmo escrito vs ritmo percebido
EXAMPLE 6-1 Webern: Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (1936), II, mm. 1–4

Webern – Variações
Copyright 1937 para
by Universal Edition. piano
Copyright Opus
renewed. All rights27 (1936)
reserved. Used by permission of European American Music
Distributors Corporation, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Universal Edition Vienna.

Often the conflict between written and perceived rhythms arises out of consideration
for the performer. Example 6-2a shows an excerpt from the first edition of Kent Kennan’s
2. Alteraçõestrumpetde compasso
sonata, e compassos
in which traditional 4 and 3 irregulares
4 4 time signatures are used. By the time of the
second edition, some 30 years later, performersDEVELOPMENTS RHYTHM to 111
had become soINaccustomed
Sagraçãountraditional
da primavera time signatures that Kennan (1927)
– Igor Stravinsky felt safe notating it as shown in Example 6-2b.
In Example 6-5 the polymeter (type c) is explicitly notated in the viola and cello
parts. It comes about through the canon at the octave, with the viola leading the
EXAMPLEby
cello 6-2A
oneKennan: SonataThe
measure. for Trumpet
fourthand Piano
and (1956),
fifth I, mm. 93–101
measures of the viola part are in 34 and 24,
while
Copyrightbeneath those
© 1956, Remick measures
Music the cello plays the third and fourth measures of the canon
Corporation.
with time signatures of 24 and 34.
Music with barlines that do not coincide, as in Example 6-5, may be troublesome
for an ensemble or a conductor, so polymeter is often implied instead of explicitly notated.
This is the case in Example 6-6, a few pages later in the same quartet—again a canonic
example, this time between the two violins. Here the viola and cello are clearly in 38,
but the violins sound as if they are in a polymetric canon (type a) with each other, as
well as being polymetric (type c) with the accompaniment. The rhythms might be
rebarred as in Example 6-7.

3.EXAMPLE
Polimétrica implícita
6-6 Bartók: String Quartet No.3 (1927), II, mm. 95–103
Quarteto de cordas nº 3 (1927) - Bella Bartók
Copyright © 1929 in the USA by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission.
112 DEVELOPMENTS IN RHYTHM

EXAMPLE 6-7 Explicit Polymetric Notation (compare with Example 6-6)

Notação rítmica reescrita

A less complicated example of implied polymeter was seen in Example 4-7 (p. 77),
discussed above in
4. Polimétrica connection with changing time signatures. In this instance the piano
explícita
2
maintains a steady 8 meter, although it is notated to conform with the changing meters
of the brasses.
Crippled Symmetry
Polymeter – Mortonbarlines
with coinciding Feldman
(type(1983)
b) is probably the least commonly used.
Remember that the simultaneous use of 24 and 68, for instance, is not really polymeter
but instead polydivision of a single meter. One example of polymeter type b is seen in
Example 6-8. Here the flutes and harps are continuing a 34 waltz that was begun eight
measures earlier. Meanwhile, beneath the waltz, the lower woodwinds and lower strings
take up a 24 melody that contrasts with the waltz in both meter and tonality.

EXAMPLE 6-8 Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911), third tableau

Excerpted from the Norton Critical Edition. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., and Edwin F. Kalmus & Co., Inc.
 DEVELOPMENTS IN RHYTHM 119
5. Poli-tempo implícito
EXAMPLE 6-14 Carter: String Quartet No. 1 (1951), I, mm. 22–26

Quarteto
Copyright ©de cordas
1955 (Renewed) nº 1 (1959)
by Associated – Elliot
Publishers, Inc. (BMI), Carter
International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by
permission.

Violino I: 36 Bpm
Violino II: 96 Bpm
Viola: 180 Bpm
Cello: 120 Bpm
 whether played forward or backward (in retrograde). A trivial example would be a group of
four 8th notes, but Messiaen is interested in more complicated patterns. The rhythm
of each measure in Example 6-12 is nonretrogradable, and each measure also contains
added values. Notice that the rhythmic activity builds gradually to a climax in the 7th
measure, followed by an immediate relaxation through longer note values. Both of
the Messiaen examples are drawn from the sixth movement of his Quartet for the End of
Time (1941).
6. Métrica aditiva de valor mínimo
EXAMPLE 6-12 Messiaen: The Technique of My Musical Language.
Abime des oiseaux _ Olivier Messiaen (1944)
Copyright © 1944 Editions Alphonse Leduc. Used by permission of the publisher.

7. Complexidade rítmica e sobreposição de subdivisões

 from which it is excerpted.
Luciano Berio’s Sequenza I (1958) uses a short barline (see Example 6-9), and the
“measure” itself is assigned a specific tempo of “70 M.M.” at the beginning. This
composition is definitely ametric, however, because the actual durations are specified
only by the placement of the notes within the measure. In the first measure, for example,
the G5 is to be given the longest duration, because it occupies the greatest portion of
8.the measure.proporcional
Notação Notation of this sort is sometimes called proportional notation.
Accidentals in this excerpt affect only the notes they precede.
Luciano Berio: Sequenza I (1958)
EXAMPLE 6-9 Berio: Sequenza I (1958), first staff

DEVELOPMENTS IN RHYTHM 117

Many techniques developed after 1960 result in ametric effects, often involving some
degree
9. Notaçãoof improvisation,
amétrica as in Example 6-9 and in Example 6-10. In Example 6-10 the
Another
temporal way to look
organization at nonretrogradable
is determined rhythmswith
by timed segments, is that each one
unmetered contains some
improvisation
rhythmic pattern followed by its retrograde, resulting inevitably in a rhythmic
going on within them. These and other improvisatory techniques will be coveredpalin in -
drome, a term used for
more detail in Chapter 14. any structure in language or music that reads the same forward
as it does backward. Therefore, any piece that makes use of rhythmic retrogrades on a
larger scale could also be considered an example of nonretrogradable rhythms. For
instance, the second movement of Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21 (1928), begins with an
11-measure theme that is a rhythmic palindrome, a technique that is found through
much of the movement.

TEMPO MODULATION AND POLYTEMPO

Elliott Carter is generally credited with being the first to use a particular method of
changing tempos precisely by making some note value in the first tempo equal to
a different note value (or at least to a different proportion of the beat) in the second
tempo. For example, to “modulate” from Œ = 80 to Œ = 120, one could begin using
8th-note triplets in the first tempo. These triplet 8ths have a duration of 240 per minute
(three times the Π= 80 rate). This rate of 240 turns out to be the rate of the simple
division of the beat (the 8th note) at the new tempo of Π= 120. (See Example 6-13).
This device has been called “metric modulation” because it usually involves changing
time signatures; however, a change of tempo is the real objective, so we will use the
term tempo modulation. This technique does bear a resemblance to the common
chord modulation of tonal music, in that one or more measures will contain elements
of both tempos.

10. Modulação métrica

EXAMPLE 6-13 A Simple Tempo Modulation

Carter evidently employed tempo modulation for the first time in his Cello Sonata
(1948). A relatively simple example is found in the second movement, which begins in
cut time at Ó = 84. Later the meter changes to 68 with the 8th note remaining constant.
The most reliable way to calculate the new tempo is to first compute the tempo of the
common note value in the first tempo:

If Ó = 84, then ‰ = 4 × 84 = 336

and then to figure out what that means in terms of the beat in the second tempo:

If ‰ = 336, and the new beat is the dotted quarter,

then the new tempo is 336/3 = 112.